Embracing The Shadows (Shadow Series #5)

14 - Interesting Childhood

Nurses and random visitors continued to shoot sympathetic looks in our direction in the small waiting area on the hospital floor we were brought up to by Mrs. McCall. Mrs. Martin was the only one that was able to stay with Lydia when they were brought into the emergency room. The nurses cut me off from following Isaac as soon as he was wheeled into the doors of the emergency room, claiming I wasn't allowed to be with him while they attended to his wounds.

Stiles and Parrish had to drag me away from the doors because I refused to leave his side. There had been a second where Theo almost stepped in to use his werewolf strength to hold me back until Parrish was able to calm me down a bit. This whole day was going by in a fast blur and I barely understood everything that was happening. All I knew was that two of the most important people in my life were seriously injured and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Over the years, I had learned how to keep my emotions under control, no matter what the situation was, but this was something that I couldn't hold back. Lydia was my best friend, and losing her would be, like, losing a sister. I would fall apart all over again, just like I did when I lost Allison. The possibility of losing Lydia and Isaac was something I wasn't sure I would ever be able to get over.

I just couldn't lose them. They meant too much to me.

After Mrs. McCall had brought all of us upstairs, I had begged her to keep an eye on Isaac since no one was allowed to be with him. The other nurses didn't even blink an eye when I told them I was his fiance. Mrs. Martin was allowed to stay with Lydia. Somebody should be with Isaac.

The tears had stopped by the time I had climbed into the back of the ambulance. I knew Isaac and Lydia wouldn't want me to be this upset over them right now, and this was my attempt to pull all of my emotions back in. I was supposed to be the strongest one and, right now, I appeared to be the weakest. I needed to fix that immediately.

As soon as I saw Mrs. McCall round the corner of the main area of the hospital floor, I darted up from the chair I settled in after she brought us up here. Stiles' head quickly snapped off of my shoulder when he saw her down the hallway. The hand Parrish had on my shoulder fell down in the empty chair when I suddenly jumped up. The rest of the group followed my actions to form a small, half circle around her.

"Stiles, Clara." Mrs. McCall approached our group, eyes on the two of us.

"How bad is it?" Stiles managed to blurt out first before I could utter a word.

From my peripheral vision, I saw Scott return to the group on the other side of Parrish with Liam in tow. My eyes briefly left Mrs. McCall to glimpse at the grey, long sleeve shirt on Scott's body with dried blood caked onto the collar. The blood on his shirt reminded me of how horrible I must look standing in the middle of the hospital. There was a mix of Lydia and Isaac's blood dried up all over my clothes and hands. Stiles even had a slice in the chest of his shirt, where Tracy had sliced it open with her tail, cutting a small slit into his skin.

With a full circle around her, Mrs. McCall found herself in the middle of it, unsure of where to look with so many people waiting around to hear what she has to say about our friends. She nodded her head in Theo's direction first, saying, "It could have been a lot worse for Lydia. Theo, nice going on that tourniquet. You probably saved her life."

My heart panged when she said those words. I reached out for Stiles' hand, knowing he was just as scared as I was about her wellbeing. We were always there for each other when we needed to be and, in this moment, Stiles and I needed each other more than anything.

"All right. She's about to go into surgery, so it's going to be a while. Any other supernatural details that I need to know about or do we just stitch her up and hope for the best?" She asked all of us, eyebrows raised.